In Part 1 of our SEKA Exceed project build, we had a quick look at the various accessories the frameset comes with and weighed individual parts to provide an actual weight baseline from which to formulate our build with. In Part 2 we will share with you how we intend to build this test/review bike up.
We wanted this test bike to be built up realistically to best reflect an actual real world build. Because of this we chose a great mix of components which we know will be high performance and will allow the frameset to shine (or not shine).
We will build up this frameset with Ultegra Di2 - 11 Speed as plenty of people still have these groupsets from their old bikes which we think they will move across to a new frameset like the SEKA's. We spent a little more of our budget on a set of Zipp 404 FC wheelset becuase we know this is key to maximising performance. We also wanted this bike to be tested on tubeless because it is the fastest setup for road cycling.
The handlebars and seatpost is SEKA's OEM items but we have included a zero offset seatpost to put us in a slightly more aggressive forward bias position whilst using a 120/380mm - stem and handlebar combo to cater to the new school fit mentality which we are a fan of.
Overall, we are estimating this build to be bang on around 7kg with no exotic components utilised.
A few quick notes on mocking up the bike. We always like to mock up our builds because it allows us to visualise what the bike will build up looking like. We did this with the SEKA and we like the way it looks already so we know it will look nice and proportionate once built up.
The construction inside the frame is clean and in-line with what we expect from much more expensive framesets. It also utilises a simple system for seatpost retention which we are always a fan of.
All the right visual queues to indicate that it will be a fast riding frameset.
In the next part of this series, we will present our finalised bike build along with weigh in and hopefully some initial riding impressions.